Sorry, may have originally posted in the wrong spot. Looking to develop a roll of Rollei/AGFA Superpan 200 I purchased from Freestyle photo last month. My school darkroom uses Spring 1+9 developer, and for the life of me I can't find any info on the correct development time. Any help is massively appreciated. Thanks!

Svenska94Aero wrote:Sorry, may have originally posted in the wrong spot. Looking to develop a roll of Rollei/AGFA Superpan 200 I purchased from Freestyle photo last month. My school darkroom uses Spring 1+9 developer, and for the life of me I can't find any info on the correct development time. Any help is massively appreciated. Thanks!

Using little known films and even more obscure developers is not a good idea. There have been far too many "here today and gone tomorrow" products in the past.

Stick to a well known brand such as Ilford, Kodak or Fuji and a tried and trusted developer and get to know them properly. Unless your school is on a very tight budget, your professor should also be recommending the more popular films and processes.

Thanks for the link, but it still doesn't have the developer we use. At least it gives me a ballpark though.

I didn't realize when I ordered the film that it was not very common, since I'm really new to film. It was one of the top hits for 200-speed film on the site my professor recommended, so I didn't realize it wasn't a safe bet. As for the developer being obscure...? Almost every other chart includes the Sprint developer. We are a fairly small school, and the photo classes, although gaining popularity lately, definitely do not get much attention in the funding department.

Films in the ISO 400 speed group are capable of very good quality enlargements when exposed and processed properly.
Popular films are Kodak Tri-X, Ilford HP5 Plus and Fuji Neopan 400. There are others too, but these films are very good. Try Ilford FP4 Plus if finer grain is required. FP4 Plus is ISO 125 though.

The industry standard developers are Kodak D-76 and Ilford ID-11 which I use for my own film processing. They have to be mixed from dry powders to make a stock solution though, so a liquid developer may be more convenient such as Kodak T-Max developer or Ilford DDX which are both designed for good results with modern and conventional film emulsions.

I cannot agree more with what Keith says. Stick to the major lines of products when you are starting out, as they are proven and well-documented. Later, when you have established what these can do and how they look, maybe experiment with some other products.

Thanks for the suggestions. For the class, I'm using mainly Tri-X 400, but my professor encouraged us to grab a couple rolls of both higher and lower ISO to try out through the course. I had no idea I'd run into this much trouble.

I was able to find some Rodinal to develop this roll.
Again, thanks for the prompt replies and suggestions, all.

Svenska94Aero wrote:Thanks for the suggestions. For the class, I'm using mainly Tri-X 400, but my professor encouraged us to grab a couple rolls of both higher and lower ISO to try out through the course. I had no idea I'd run into this much trouble.

I was able to find some Rodinal to develop this roll.
Again, thanks for the prompt replies and suggestions, all.

With the fine grain of today's fast films, there is hardly any need for anything slow unless you want to make really big enlargements. Tri-X in D-76 1:1 is hard to beat (though I prefer the look of Fuji Neopan 400). T-Max 400 Improved is one I have not tried, but it is even finer grained and very sharp. You should be able to make 11x14 enlargements from 35mm Tri-X with hardly any noticeable grain, provided your technique is good. That means generous exposure and gentle development.

Rollei Superpan 200 is equivalent to the Rollei retro 400S and in fact it is Agfa Gevaert Aviphot 200 film with extended Red sensitivity till approx. 740nm, so superpanchromatic. You can even use this film on E.I. 6 with a IR filter #88A (715nm - 720nm).
The film is fine grained but is pretty contrastly. So the best type developer is a semi-compensating type not working too fast and hard in contrast.